lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm      | 1 +
 lib/PublicInbox/WwwListing.pm | 2 ++
 t/inbox.t                     | 7 ++++---
 t/www_listing.t               | 5 +++--

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
index 002b980f40574e266dfc68b065e8bd733016eb4d..c295b2677e48299cbfbacfc53f36136ad73f479f 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
@@ -223,6 +223,7 @@ 	($self->{description} //= do {
 		my $desc = try_cat("$self->{inboxdir}/description");
 		local $/ = "\n";
 		chomp $desc;
+		utf8::decode($desc);
 		$desc =~ s/\s+/ /smg;
 		$desc eq '' ? undef : $desc;
 	}) // '($INBOX_DIR/description missing)';
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/WwwListing.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/WwwListing.pm
index 38a37ddaae977f129081f4b054f4ac9a1076385b..a416d24f0e446e27ae3c3148b061be9128ca7350 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/WwwListing.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/WwwListing.pm
@@ -159,6 +159,8 @@ 	chomp(my $owner = $git->qx('config', 'gitweb.owner'));
 	chomp(my $desc = try_cat("$git_dir/description"));
 	$owner = undef if $owner eq '';
 	$desc = 'Unnamed repository' if $desc eq '';
+	utf8::decode($desc);
+	utf8::decode($owner);
 
 	# templates/hooks--update.sample and git-multimail in git.git
 	# only match "Unnamed repository", not the full contents of
diff --git a/t/inbox.t b/t/inbox.t
index b59d5dba8c0fbd1c6000b06175f97d136a43ad3c..08f1724f092698bb76b1e8deeb30b68a8c5392b9 100644
--- a/t/inbox.t
+++ b/t/inbox.t
@@ -22,13 +22,14 @@ 	open my $fh, '>', "$x->{inboxdir}/cloneurl" or die;
 	print $fh "https://example.com/inbox\n" or die;
 	close $fh or die;
 	open $fh, '>', "$x->{inboxdir}/description" or die;
-	print $fh "blah\n" or die;
+	print $fh "\xc4\x80blah\n" or die;
 	close $fh or die;
 }
 is_deeply($x->cloneurl, ['https://example.com/inbox'], 'cloneurls update');
-is($x->description, 'blah', 'description updated');
+ok(utf8::valid($x->description), 'description is utf8::valid');
+is($x->description, "\x{100}blah", 'description updated');
 is(unlink(glob("$x->{inboxdir}/*")), 2, 'unlinked cloneurl & description');
 is_deeply($x->cloneurl, ['https://example.com/inbox'], 'cloneurls memoized');
-is($x->description, 'blah', 'description memoized');
+is($x->description, "\x{100}blah", 'description memoized');
 
 done_testing();
diff --git a/t/www_listing.t b/t/www_listing.t
index 31d76356d886697093a099129fddf22e1b5e50ad..0aededd43ebc669b211ebbd366ec8bec770e85d8 100644
--- a/t/www_listing.t
+++ b/t/www_listing.t
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ 	IO::Uncompress::Gunzip::gunzip(\(delete $res->{content}) => \$tmp);
 	unlike($tmp, qr/"modified":\s*"/, 'modified is an integer');
 	my $manifest = $json->decode($tmp);
 	ok(my $clone = $manifest->{'/alt'}, '/alt in manifest');
-	is($clone->{owner}, 'lorelei', 'owner set');
+	is($clone->{owner}, "lorelei \x{100}", 'owner set');
 	is($clone->{reference}, '/bare', 'reference detected');
 	is($clone->{description}, "we're all clones", 'description read');
 	ok(my $bare = $manifest->{'/bare'}, '/bare in manifest');
@@ -88,7 +88,8 @@ 	ok(open(my $fh, '>', "$v2/inbox.lock"), 'mock a v2 inbox');
 	open $fh, '>', "$alt/description" or die;
 	print $fh "we're all clones\n" or die;
 	close $fh or die;
-	is(xsys('git', "--git-dir=$alt", qw(config gitweb.owner lorelei)), 0,
+	is(xsys('git', "--git-dir=$alt", qw(config gitweb.owner),
+		"lorelei \xc4\x80"), 0,
 		'set gitweb user');
 	ok(unlink("$bare->{git_dir}/description"), 'removed bare/description');
 	open $fh, '>', $cfgfile or die;